Cozy Comfort Food: Chicken and Green Beans

It may not be as cold as Buffalo, but it is still the perfect time of year for a warm cozy meal. This dish is simple enough to please the whole family, while flavorful to keep you wanting more. This recipe made two servings with leftovers. Make sure to check out my serving tips at the very end.

You will see from this dish that I prefer meals with satiating fats and complex carbohydrates. The link between heart disease and fat consumption is simply false. What lead to low-fat diet recommendations was a combination of bad science, cherry-picking, and politics (and what do politicians know about health??). While the over consumption of calories from any source can lead to weight gain, fats in moderation are not the bad guy they've been made out to be. If you are interested in learning more, I suggest you take a look at a new book, The Big Fat Suprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by Nina Teicholz. 

Chicken and Green Beans

Ingredients:

• Green beans (1 cup)

• Yellow onion (.5 lrg)

• Bacon (4-6 pieces)

• Chicken Breast (2-3 pcs)

• White wine or chicken broth (1/2 cup)

Prep time: 5 mins   Cook Time: 30-40 mins

1. Start by preheating a deep pan on medium. Once warm, add your bacon and cook until light brown. While your bacon cooks prep your veggies: dice the onions and cut green beans in 1" pieces.

2. I love my George Forman grill, but if you don't have one, the chicken could be cooked in the oven or in a pan, whatever you prefer. My grill takes ~15-20 mins to cook 3 breasts so I started the chicken the same time as the rest of the dish. (I added the bacon on top so that the chicken would brown a little extra, totally optional.)

3. While you chicken cooks pull the cooked bacon out and let it cool on a paper towel. When the bacon has cooled, crumble it. Leave the grease in the pan!

4. With the pan on medium-high, add your onion and green beans, stir frequently to get all sides coated with the grease. Cover the pan and turn the heat down to med-low.

5. When your onions have gotten soft and brown, turn the heat back up to med and add the white wine or broth to deglaze the pan. Make sure to scrape all the tasty brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Check your green beans, but they will likely need maybe 5-10 more mins simmering in the juices.

6. When your chicken is cooked, let it cool for 5 mins then cut into bit sized chunks. 

7. Add the chicken and bacon to the pan and stir. You can cover and let it all sit on low heat to make sure everything is piping hot.

8. My bacon usually gives the dish enough salt, but I would suggest some fresh ground pepper for sure. 

Serving Tips:

If you wanted this dish to be a stand alone meal I would suggest doubling the amount of green beans. For this meal I had a garlic zucchini side dish for added veggies.

As is, the flavor profile is rich but fairly simple, so it would pair well with a light but full flavored side. Or if you wanted to serve it over plain rice, you could boost the flavor with some spices (sage, Italian Seasonings, rosemary).


Enjoy this warm cozy meal and let me know any changes you tried!

Honey Coco

It's almost May in California, and after a week of sunshine and 85° it is funny how it only takes one cool, rainy day to make you want comfort food.

My mind automatically went to hot coco. I love milk and a warm chocolatey drink sounded like just the thing to get me through the day. But then I ran into the dilemma of "Do you really want to drink that much sugar?" Over the last few years I have been trying to cut out refined sugars- decreasing them when I can and substituting them when possible. I'm not a big sweets eater, so normally I would have ignored my conscious and had a cozy sugar filled coco. BUT today was different. Today I had just been talking to my mom about a new movie coming out called "Fed Up", which focuses on how modern food is killing us. The focus of the movie is SUGAR. (Check out the trailer below, and watch the movie when it comes out!) So today I couldn't let myself indulge.

I pouted at my nutritionist guardian angel for a moment, what was I going to eat that would fill that craving? Then it dawned on me to use my favorite sugar substitute: HONEY! How I have never thought of this before is a mystery because it worked perfectly and tasted great!

In fact, honey worked better with raw cocoa powder than sugar does. I always struggle to make "homemade" hot coco because I can never get all of the powder to dissolve, but with the honey that wasn't a problem. You'll also see a little cream added, don't skip this, because I believe it's the fat that helps combine and dissolve the cocoa, whereas the water in milk repels it. 

Honey Coco:

1 spoonful of honey

1 heaping spoonful of cocoa powder

1 Tbsp cream

8 oz Milk (Whole, of course)

I used a regular kitchen spoon to roughly measure; you'll want to customize your measurements to your taste. Mix the honey, cocoa, and cream together in your mug. You should get a nice smooth and creamy fudge. Add only a couple ounces of milk so you can mix vigorously to ensure a smooth mixture, scrape the corners of your mug to make sure you have incorporated all of the "fudge". Add the rest of your milk and pop in the microwave. (You could of course heat the milk on the stove and add it slowly in the same manner.) 

On another day, I think I will try using this "fudge" base as hot fudge on ice cream :)

Still a sweet treat, but one I can enjoy with a little less guilt.  Enjoy!